Legendary athlete PT Usha elected as the first woman president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), ushering in a new era in the country’s sports administration.
The 58-year-old Usha, a multiple Asian Games gold medalist and fourth-place finisher in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 400m hurdles final, was declared elected unopposed in the polls overseen by Supreme Court-appointed retired SC judge L Nageswara Rao.
The elevation of Usha to the top job will also bring an end to the long-running crisis in the faction-ridden IOA, which has been threatened with suspension by the International Olympic Committee if elections, originally scheduled for December last year, are not held this month.
Elections was held to select a joint secretary (female) and four ordinary members of the executive council, with 77 members of the electoral college voting. Alaknanda Ashok of the Badminton Association of India and Suman Kaushik of the Netball Federation of India are competing for the position of joint secretary (female).
The voters selected four members of the executive council from among the eight candidates running.
Amitabh Sharma, Bhupender Singh Bajwa, Cyrus Poncha, Harjinder Singh, Harpal Singh, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Rohit Rajpal, and Vitthal Shirgaonkar are the eight candidates.
Usha, a legendary track and field athlete, will be taking on a completely new role, as she has never held a position of power before. She is currently the chairperson of the Athletics Federation of India’s junior selection committee. She has also served on various national award committees established by the government over the years.
Usha, dubbed the ‘Payyoli Express,’ is seen as a candidate for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which nominated her for a Rajya Sabha seat in July. She will also be the first Olympian and first international medalist to lead the IOA in its 95-year history, adding another feather to her cap after dominating Indian and Asian athletics for two decades before retiring with a slew of international medals in 2000.
Usha is the first sportsperson to represent the country while also serving as IOA president since Maharaja Yadavindra Singh in 1934. Singh was the third president of the IOA, serving from 1938 to 1960.
Ajay Patel of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will be elected as senior vice-president unopposed. As vice presidents, Olympic medalist shooter Gagan Narang and Rowing Federation of India president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo will be elected unopposed.
Sahdev Yadav, president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), will be the treasurer because he is the only candidate for the position. Former goalkeeper and All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey will be elected unopposed as joint secretary (male). Yogeshwar Dutt, an Olympic medalist in wrestling, and archer Dola Banerjee will serve on the executive council as male and female representatives of the eight Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM).
One candidate for vice president (female) and four candidates for executive council members had previously dropped out of the race. Union Minister Arjun Munda, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and BJP Member of Parliament Brijbhushan Sharan Singh are among those expected to vote. Some of the country’s past and present top scorers, including Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu, MM Somaya, and Akhil Kumar, will vote, as will Usha, Gagan Narang, and Yogeshwar Dutt.
The new executive council will also be significantly different from previous ones. At least five of the 14 executive council members (including IOC member in India Nita Ambani) will be former athletes, a first in IOA history.
Only Sahdev Yadav and Rajlaxmi Singh Deo remain in the top positions from the previous IOA executive council. After receiving approval from the international committee, the IOA adopted the new constitution prepared by Justice Rao on November 10. The 77-member electoral college is made up of 66 members from 33 National Sports Federations, each of which nominated one male and one female, eight SOMs (four male and four female), two from the Athletes Commission (one male and one female), and Nita Ambani, an IOC member in India.
The IOA electoral college also has more female members (39) than male members (38). The IOA elections were scheduled for December of last year but were cancelled due to a pending case in the Delhi High Court in which a petition was filed seeking amendments to its constitution prior to holding elections in order to align it with the National Sports Code.
Later, the Supreme Court appointed retired Justice Rao to draft the constitution and hold elections. The IOC noted the “significant progress” made by the IOA in resolving its governance issues on Tuesday, but stated that it will not decide whether to withdraw the warning for a ban until the elections process is completed.